Domestic Fuel

There is an advantage to self publishing because you can truly say what you want to say. And Ronald H. Bowman, Jr. does just that in his book, “The Green Guide to Power Thinking Outside the Grid”. I originally thought the book was going to be about the development of the “Smart Grid“. It wasn’t. Although he did talk a little about the “Green Grid“. However, the book was actually about, “the state of technology…their maturity to the marketplace, reliability, financial feasibility, interoperability with incumbent utility, and ecological impact.” His energy alternatives include: wave, solar, biomass, biowaste, geothermal, tidal, wind, and fuel cell (hydrogen). He also spends time on coal and nuclear energy.

Electric energy usage is projected to go up 50% by 2031 and 100% by 2050. With the current pace of increasing energy needs and slow adoption of renewables to the marketplace, Bowman argues that we won’t have enough power to meet our demands in 2031. Like most others, he believes that there needs to be more tax credits and incentives to spur the growth of alternative energy to market. I know, I know, everyone hates energy subsidies, right? Well, apparently people don’t hate oil subsidies. Just subsidies that are designed to make our country a cleaner, greener place powered by domestically produced renewable energy.

• Federal subsidies for ethanol in 2006 – $6 billion
• Federal subsidies for coal in 2006 – $8 billion
• Federal subsidies for oil and gas in 2006 – $39 billion

Bowman touches on the carbon caps and carbon trading –it won’t work the way it is currently set up (I agree) and like most uniformed people, hates ethanol. BTW in case you can’t hear, see or read, the food versus fuel debate was a complete sham. Overall, he does a decent job of assessing feasiblity of the renewable energy options. Want to learn more?  Buy the book or any book that I review on DomesticFuel.

Senators John Thune (R-SD), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) have reintroduced legislation that would fix the flawed definition of renewable biomass in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

The definition of “Renewable Biomass” in the 2007 Energy Bill excludes any material removed from national forests and most private forestlands. Therefore, cellulosic ethanol derived from this feedstock does not count toward the expanded Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), resulting in blenders and refiners having no incentive or requirement to purchase biofuels produced from these sources.

The proposed legislation would change the definition of “Renewable Biomass” to more closely conform to earlier versions of the RFS and the 2008 Farm Bill. That would allow pre-commercial and post-commercial waste from national forests to be eligible feedstocks under the definition of “Renewable Biomass” and allows for waste materials to be removed from our public lands which will assist in reducing fire danger.

The Farm Bill also includes several incentives for the production of cellulosic ethanol based on this definition of “Renewable Biomass.” These incentives include grants and loan guarantees for cellulosic ethanol plants and provisions of the Biomass Crop Assistance Program.

According to a 2005 U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Agriculture study, about 2 billion tons of treatable biomass on federal forestland is available for bioenergy production. A significant portion of this biomass could be sustainably removed on an annual basis, not counting post-commercial waste such as wood chips from paper mills.

The National Biodiesel Board has joined the online conversation on Twitter.

Today several of us have joined Twitter, to help answer your questions and discuss anything you feel like talking about in the biodiesel world. Whether you want to know if there is a biodiesel pump in your town, or have technical questions, or want to talk about anything biodiesel at all, we want to hear from you! If we don’t find you first, you can follow these National Biodiesel Board representatives on Twitter by clicking on the user name:

Biodiesel_Voice, Jenna Higgins/Director of Communications
Biodiesel_Media, Jessica Robinson/Senior Communications Specialist
Biodiesel_DC, Michael Frohlich/Wash D.C. Dir. of Comm. (federal updates)
Biodiesel_Tech, Jordan Thaeler/Technical Projects Manager
Biodiesel_Earth, Don Scott/Director of Sustainability
Biodiesel_Info, Bev Thessen/Information Coordinator

Hey Joe Jobe. I don’t see you on the list!

If you or your company needs some help figuring this whole Twitter thing out then contact me anytime. You can follow Domestic Fuel on Twitter too.

I love wind energy and I’ve been wanting a wind turbine for my home for awhile. So much so that I’ve been sending out communications on my Twitter account (ID – jmschroeder). Well, I’ve finally found one. The product is called Windspire and it is produced by Mariah Power, founded in 2005. It is 30 feet tall by 2 feet wide. It is propeller free (no worries about the birds here folks), quiet and perfect for office buildings, government buildings and homes. Since May 2008, there has been a Windspire on display in the United States Botanic Gardens.

What else is cool about Mariah Power is that they are putting people back to work. On April 20, 2009 they will be opening their new manufacturing facility in Manistee, Michigan, an area especially hard hit due to the decline of Detroit’s auto industry. The facility will put 140 people to work over the next 3 years. Check out this video that highlights the community as it builds the new plant and residents get ready to go back to work.

The cost per Windspire is approximately $6,500 but with the incentives from the Reinvestment and Recovery Act, which covers 30% of the cost for both purchase and installation, you could install your own wind energy source for as little as $4,500. I’m not sure how quickly you’d see you return on investment (I’m sure it is fairly quickly especially for government and office buildings), but in my book it’s immediate when you can reduce or even eliminate the use of fossil fuel based energy sources. Green, renewable energy rocks!

There’s a new day on the calendar. Well not a new day, just a new celebration. This one on solar energy.

Move over Earth Day. There’s a new environmentally friendly semi-holiday coming up, and it’s none other than Solar Day. This day doesn’t just thank the sun for shining, though. It’s meant to educate the public about the benefits of using solar energy, and how residents can take advantage of solar options in their areas. Solar Day 2009 will be held all throughout the United States on the first day of summer, which lands on Sunday, June 21 this year. If your interest is piqued by this news, be sure to check out SolarDay.com, the official home of Solar Day, and a portal for all sorts of news on the solar industry.

More and more municipalities are finding ways to keep more waste out of their landfills and sewer systems, while putting that garbage and grease to work as alternative fuels.

The effort has grown so much that another… the second one… Annual Waste-to-Fuels Conference & Trade Show, sponsored by the Florida BioFuels Association, Inc.; the Southern Waste Information eXchange, Inc.; and the American Recycler (a salvage, waste, and recycling news Web site), will be held at the Hyatt Regency Mission Bay, in San Diego, California on May 17-19, 2009:

The Waste-to-Fuels Conference & Trade Show will provide a forum for informing the public and private sectors of the economic and environmental benefits of converting waste materials to alternative fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol as well as energy recovery. Attendees will have excellent networking opportunities and a chance to visit with exhibitors to preview the newest advances in alternative fuel production products and services. The conference will be designed to attract individuals and organizations/companies nationally.

* Overview of Waste-to-Fuels/Energy
* Siting, Permitting and Funding Waste-to-Fuel/Energy Facilities
* Waste-to-Fuel/Energy Case Studies from Around the Globe
* Agriculture & Sewage Waste-to-Fuels/Energy Recovery
* Fats Oils and Greases (FOGS) and Digestion Technologies
* Municipal Solid Waste-to-Fuel and Energy Recovery
* Specialty Waste-to-Fuels/Energy Projects

Tight budget keeping you from attending? Well, there are some Stimulus Scholarships available to pay the $595 conference fee. Click here for more information.

More information is available through the conference Web site: www.waste-to-fuels.org.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu says for the sake of our children and grandchildren, the United States “must decrease our dependence on oil, use energy in the most efficient ways possible, and lower our carbon emissions.”

Chu told the House Science and Technology Committee this week that in order to make that happen, the government needs to increase funding and “support transformational technology research to bring a range of clean energy technologies to the point where the private sector can pick them up.”

Top on Chu’s list of those technologies is “gasoline and diesel-like biofuels generated from lumber waste, crop wastes, solid waste, and non-food crops.” He also prioritized “large scale energy storage systems so that variable renewable energy sources such as wind or solar power can become base-load power generators” on his wish list.

This was the first Cabinet-level witness for the Committee, and the Secretary’s first appearance at a House panel.

Algae as a feedstock for biofuels, in particular, biodiesel and ethanol, continues to grow in interest… especially in the Southeastern U.S. People from nine different states recently met in Atlanta the first official event of the National Algae Association’s new Mid-South Chapter.

A press release from the group says the importance of turning algae into biodiesel can be summed up with the title of the keynote address: “Algae, the New Biocrude”:

“The NAA Atlanta workshop was outstanding for me because it accelerated my knowledge of developing algae technologies, potential customers, the competitive landscape, and who the emerging leaders are. Additionally, the workshop afforded some great networking and exchange of ideas. I look forward to attending future events and would highly recommend NAA events to anyone with an interest in algae-based biofuels development as an investor, researcher, algae venture employee/potential employee, entrepreneur, or utility representative,” said Dan Berler, chemical engineer/Atlanta.

“The intense interest and interaction of our workshop attendees has confirmed the growing need for more events such as this in the region,” observed Tamra Fakhoorian, president of the chapter. She continued, “The NAA Mid-South Chapter is looking forward to serve the growing algae community in the southeastern region of the US by holding similar workshops, conferences and on-site algae production clinics. Our next workshop is slated to be held in Huntsville, Alabama in early June.”

The National Algae Association brings together algae researchers and companies to share ideas and exchange information.

With appropriate policies to help overcome current fiscal constraints, the advanced biofuels industry can meet environmental goals, create new green jobs and contribute to economic growth, according to industry leaders who met this week at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of the Biomass Program’s Biomass 2009: Fueling Our Future conference.

During the conference opening plenary session, titled “Dispelling the Myths and Addressing the Challenges,” Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) executive vice president Brent Erickson stressed the economic potential that development of the advanced biofuels industry holds.

“Building advanced biofuel production to a modest target of 45 billion gallons by 2030, which can be achieved by maintaining the same pace of technology development, could create more than 400,000 jobs within the industry and 1.9 million new jobs throughout the economy,” said Erickson. “Further, it could provide an economic boost of $300 billion.”

Richard Hamilton, chief executive of energy crop company Ceres, Inc., said large increases expected in crop productivity, as well as better utilization of fallow or marginal land, will absorb the demands being placed on U.S. farmers by bioenergy. “And if we look at improved ways to roll-out advances in plant science globally, and rely primarily on non-food, low-carbon crops like switchgrass, sorghum and Miscanthus, then the math behind biofuels looks even more promising,” he said.

Jack Huttner with DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol discussed some of the economic and policy challenges facing the industry and noted that everything depends on a robust government support structure. “We won’t need incentives and subsidies forever, but we need them to get started. In particular, we need regulatory regimes and policies from agencies like the EPA that don’t send the wrong signals to the marketplace.”

The conference was held yesterday and today at the Gaylord National in National Harbor, MD.

Ed Schafer, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under George W. Bush, Governor of North Dakota from 1992-2000, and one of the founders of the Governors’ Biofuels Coalition will be the first guest on the 2009 edition of the Ethanol Minute Radio program beginning this week.

In this year’s inaugural broadcast of the highly successful series, Secretary Schafer says that America can continue to be the breadbasket of the world while playing a vital role in the development of renewable energy. He notes that biofuels had little impact on a spike in food prices last year that were in reality due to skyrocketing energy costs, a global drought, and a surge in world demand.

“Although corn and oil prices are now at their lowest in years, food manufacturers continue to charge high prices and rake in record profits. It is time for them to stop blaming biofuels and provide some relief to the American consumer,” said Mr. Schafer. “Working together, we can turn the economy around with both the energy and food sectors doing their part. As a Governor I had to balance the needs of many different industries and the biofuels program does just that.”

The Ethanol Minute is broadcast nationally with nearly 1,000 minutes per week airing from coast to coast reaching more than 50 million listeners. Guests include people from all walks of life providing a perspective from a variety of industry, government, and public interests in a concise and targeted format.

The Ethanol Minute is part of the Ethanol Across America Education Campaign. The program is produced in cooperation with the US Department of Agriculture, with additional support provided by Growth Energy.

When the dust finally settled yesterday, oil company Valero came out with the winning bid of $477 million for seven ethanol plants owned by bankrupt producer VeraSun Energy.

According to a release from VeraSun, Valero Renewable Fuels was selected as the successful bidder for assets contained in the “VSE Group”, in addition to ethanol production facilities in Albion, Neb., and Albert City, Iowa, following an auction in Wilmington, Del. The VSE Group consists of production facilities in Aurora, S.D.; Charles City, Fort Dodge and Hartley, Iowa, and Welcome, Minn., and a development site in Reynolds, Ind.

The auction began Monday but ended up continuing into Tuesday because a number of other bidders ended up participating in the process, including Archer Daniels Midland, although they did not acquire any assets.

The secured lenders for nine other VeraSun facilities submitted successful credit bids. The company hopes to close the deals in April. VeraSun had filed to reorganize under Chapter 11 of federal bankruptcy law late in October.

Today is National Biodiesel Day, celebrated on the 151st anniversary of the birth of Rudolf Diesel… the inventor, of course, of the diesel engine. But what you might not know is that Diesel’s first innovative engine ran on peanut oil… the first biodiesel! That’s why the National Biodiesel Board has chosen today to celebrate National Biodiesel Day and to highlight the sustainable nature of the “Scientists for Biodiesel” declaration a month and a half ago:

“Rudolf Diesel understood that fossil resources were not a bottomless barrel,” said Joe Jobe, National Biodiesel Board CEO. “He foresaw that sustainable fuels, like modern-day biodiesel, would be a key to energy resources and continued technological advances.”

The declaration highlights biodiesel’s sustainability and its benefits to reduce dependence on petroleum, help address climate change and boost domestic economies. It also voices support for additional research and development.

The NBB goes on to point out that burning the 700 million gallons of the green fuel produced last year reduced greenhouse gas emissions the equivalent of taking nearly 1 million vehicles off U.S. roads. In addition, for every unit of energy to produce biodiesel, at least 3.5 units are gained; soybean-based biodiesel uses just the oil, leaving 80 percent of the bean for high-quality food source for animals and people; and biodiesel biodegrades about as fast as sugar.

So, happy birthday, Mr. Diesel and happy National Biodiesel Day!

You can read the “Scientists for Biodiesel” declaration by going to www.biodieselsustainability.com.

A $1.3 million State of Connecticut grant will help a private company build a biodiesel refinery.

This press release from Greenleaf Biofuels, LLC, says the company inked the deal to build a waste-grease feedstock biodiesel plant in New Haven harbor:

The grant to Greenleaf is the largest of several announced by Connecticut late last year and is part of the State’s production facility program to directly support biodiesel production. Greenleaf’s grant is underwritten by Connecticut’s Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) and administered through the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT).

Discussing the Greenleaf New Haven facility, Gus Kellogg, founder and CEO of Greenleaf, said: “The technology for building advanced biodiesel processing facilities is ready now to meet customer needs at prices competitive even at today’s suddenly lower fuel prices. In the future, we believe our products will become even more attractive to energy customers. That’s because, since the 1970’s when current energy supply and related environmental issues first emerged, fossil fuel prices have mostly trended upward.”

Officials say when the plant is up and running next year, it will be able to make 6.7 million gallons of biodiesel a year from used cooking oil and grease. They add the plant will use little water and generate little waste, among other earth-friendly practices the refinery will employ.

Green pond scum will become green fuel at a new pilot production plant in Indiana.

Stellarwind Bio Energy, LLC, a producer of fuel oil from algae, announced the opening of its new small scale pilot production facility and corporate headquarters in Indianapolis. The plant has a 1/10th acre greenhouse, along with offices and an advanced research and development

Leveraging two years of research, design and development, the new headquarters located at 8440 W. 82nd Street, Indianapolis, IN, will allow Stellarwind Bio Energy to build a scaled pilot production facility deploying its PhycoGenic ReactorTM and PhycoProcessorTM. During this phase intensive effort will continue as the company refines its systems and manufacturing processes.

“Our vision statement says it all. Renewable, eco-friendly fuel sources are no longer an option; they are now a necessity. For years, science has known that algae are a far better producer of fuel oils than other biological sources. The problem has been to cost-effectively build a bioreactor that can inexpensively grow, harvest and process commercially viable quantities of fuel oil from algae. We are committed to deploying such a system,” states [Will Kassebaum, President and CEO of Stellarwind Bio Energy].

Company officials says their PhycoGenic ReactorTM will allow them to grow algae very cheaply… key to making the venture sustainable. They also claim that algae, which produces 10,000 gallons of fuel per acre each year, is a better biofuel feedstock than corn (150-330 gallons of ethanol per acre per year) or soybeans (70-100 gallons of biodiesel per acre per year). Plus, they say the oil from algae is easier to refine into gasoline, kerosene or aviation fuel.

Indiana Senate lawmakers today approved a bill that would allow schools to receive grants to install E85 dispensing units. House Bill 1193 was sponsored by State Senator Ron Alting (shown right).

“Currently, retailers and local governments can receive grants to invest in E85 pumps and fuel tanks,” Alting said. “This legislation would allow school corporations and universities to also receive grants so they can install E85 fuel tanks on campuses.” Alting said since grants became available last year, more than $135,000 has been provided to various retailers.

Along with a Federal income tax credit for E85 infrastructure, Indiana also offers tax breaks and incentives for those who produce and/or use biofuels. Funding for these grants comes from corn check-off funds and has no cost to Indiana taxpayers.

There are currently 116 E85 fueling locations within the state of Indiana.